Windows Server 2008 Installation R2 Video & Guide

Windows Server 2008 Installation will for the most part be the most trivial part of what you do on the server, but some will find the video and guide a helpful start. This guide doesn’t do anything fancy, it walks you through the initial server installation including logging in for the first time. Some may find this too basic, but it is meant to be a building block series and each video will build on what is done in the last.

If you want to skip the write-up and watch the video go ahead and do that:

Note: Computers with more than 16 GB of RAM will require more disk space for paging, hibernation, and dump files

The big take away from that chart is that to install Windows Server 2008 R2 REQUIRES x64 (64-bit) architecture where in Server 2008 you could use X86 (32-bit) processors. You will get a lovely error message telling you that your processor is the wrong type if you try to install it on a x86 machine:

In this demo I am using Vmware Workstation to simulate a 2 processor box with 60GB hard drive. I will be installing the Server 2008 R2 Standard and assume that you have a bootable copy of the server disk along with knowing how to get your server to boot from it. Slide your disk in or mount your .iso file and lets get started.

Once your initial bootstrap comes up you will now see the first of many choices. Choose your language, time & currency type, and keyboard type, then click Next

The next step is to click on the big Install button…

Now we will select which version we are going to install of Server 2008 R2. If this is going to be something other than a test server make sure you choose the right version. If you choose wrong here you’ll have no way to fix it later beyond reinstalling. For this demo we are choosing the Standard version with a full installation. Choose your version and select Next.

Now we will agree to the ever expansive licensing terms by selecting the box next to “I accept the license terms” and then clicking on Next.

Choosing the type of install will now be “Custom (Advanced)” since this is a new server. if you were upgrading from a previous version you would choose “Upgrade”, but I always discourage this, better to do a fresh install if possible and restore your data/application.

Choosing where you want to install Windows Server 2008 system directory is our next stop. You should see the available partitions on your server. If you don’t and happen to be using hardware that might not be in the drivers that shipped with Server 2008 R2, you should check the manufacturers website for a driver. You would load it by clicking “Load Driver”. In this case we don’t have to and will install to the default drive. There are also tools on this screen that will let you create, size, resize, & delete partitions if needed. Once you finish with and choose your drive location click Next.

Next you will see the install process which will take a little while, you will see the progress bar move along as it does so. Your machine should reboot at least once and maybe more.

Once the install routines are done the first thing you will see after the last reboot is a notice that the user’s password must be changed before logging on the first time. Click on Ok to change the password

Go ahead and enter your new password then confirm it. Please note that even at this point the default password policy requirements are enabled so you have to use a Strong password. Click on the arrow after you have your password entered to proceed.

If you have managed to appease the password security policy you will see the following screen with the informational post “Your Password has been changed.”

Finally! The moment we have been waiting for the Windows Server Desktop! The first thing that will happen once the desktop arrives is you will see the “Initial Configuration Tasks” window will pop up to give you some helpful guidelines on what to do next.

I’m going to cover the Initial Configuration Tasks in a different post. For now that is it, you have now successfully installed Windows Server 2008 R2 on your box and it’s a a solid foundation to move forward with.

Here is a video that shows all the steps above with my commentary if it is easier to watch than read through the walkthrough.

3 responses

vicki cole

July 16, 2011

does this software work on an apple computer?

Dave

July 18, 2011

Sorry no, this software is specific to MS Windows platforms.

Bob

August 25, 2011

Actually you can install Windows Server on a Mac as long as you have one with an Intel processor. You will want to set up a partition on your Mac drive (using the Disk Utility) first before installing WinServ so you don’t overwrite the Mac OS.